Last Year at Marienbad

Rating:
Summary: B*O*R*I*N*G*!!!!
Review: As a French "New Wave" fanatic I wanted to love this movie! I purchased my DVD copy on Ebay for $83 and I was very geeked when I finally received it in the mail. I am a filmmaker and film critic and I have studied the masters of American, French, Italien and others and this movie just put my ... cheeks to sleep. I care not for all the existenialism, freudian, and mathematical concepts which abound in this film. The bottom line (as with any art) is: is it enjoyable? This work is beautifully photographed with the magnificent palaces and Seyrig beautifully decked out in Chanel costumes. The film did succeed in making me fascinated with her beauty. It failed in developing a believable "supposed" romance with X and intrigue with the other character M. I have read several reviews that describe the plot as X (Albertazzi), who with his movie star good looks, trys to convince A (Seyrig) that he had a passionate romance with her just a year ago. My first problem is that Albertazzi does not posess "moviestar" good looks. Perhaps if he did I could believe the premise but as he does not, I found the story to be un engaging and just flat out ... cheek-numbing boring. Resnais has tried several times over the years to be bleeding edge but trying and actually achieving are two separate things

Watch it if you, like myself, are interested in one of the New Wave classics. ... This work is a poor homage to Hitchcock if indeed that is what Resnais was trying to create.

Finally, I had the thought while watching this film that just about any episode of The Twilight Zone would prove much more entertaining and advaced (for the time period- early 1960's) than this turkey.

Rating:
Summary: P.S.
Review: After writing a review based on my first impressions, I read up a little bit about the film and learned that the contribution from Alain Robbe-Grillet included a detailed shooting script. Based on what I know about him, whenever the script seemed to encourage not taking itself seriously, it probably wasn't the author's intention. I don't know if Resnais ever went on record to say what he had in mind, but, to these eyes, it didn't look like he made an earnest effort to realize Robbe-Grillet's stated conception. In any case, the film must rank among Resnais' stranger artistic collaborations.

I should have also noted that I've seen the film only in theater.

Rating:
Summary: Moody Avant-Garde film
Review: Filmed at the crumbling but elegant Marienbad Spa in Czech Republic, this beautiful film exemplifies the avant-garde film movement as it culminated in the Sixties. The story is indistinct and equivocal, the mood introspective and self-conscious. European filmmaking at its best.

Rating:
Summary: overrated film by the usually excellent Resais
Review: what a snooze!
I bought this film when I read all of the great reviews. Also, I loved "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" and "J'tme J'tme" and find Resnais familiar themes of memory and repetition interesting.

But "last Year at Marienbad" was a letdown. It's just too vague (even for Resnais!!). It's never clear what is going on. Even the mood is vague. The film never weaves a tight enough atmosphere to sustain the expressionism.

It took me three sitting to get through the entire film and I ended up fast forwarding through the last twenty minutes. What a bore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous and unprecedented
Review: Don't look for plot or characterization or statement in "Last Year at Marienbad." This is film as music -- formal, obsessive, reiterative, and forever abstract. Follow it as you would a string quartet (the reviewer who compared it to Steve Reich is dead on) or a ballet. Love it for its moment-to-moment visual sumptuousness, for the way the phonemes of the French language are caressed, for its gentle but distinct repudiation of narrative. Above all, enjoy the ride -- and don't wait for revelations that will never come.

"Last Year at Marienbad" opens up vast new possibilities for film -- possibilities that have barely begun to be explored in four decades.

Rating:
Summary: Why see this film?
Review: This is without a doubt the most impenetrable film ever made. There is no plot, and we see over and over again the same action. A visual Steve Reich piece. A must see for all serious film buffs, just to say you have done it. You must stay to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Circular time/multilayered memories
Review: Having gotten thru only one Alain Robbe Grillet novel,I appreciate seeing his ideas about time , memory ,decomposition of reality...the state of mans consciosness in a visually beautiful movie.
Forget about plot if you watch this movie.It's a circular frozen moment of memory.

Rating:
Summary: What the hell is going on?
Review: I decided to get this movie because the plot sounded interesting and most people gave it rave reviews. From the moment I pushed play I had no idea what was going on. This dramatic instrumental music that didn't fit with some of the scenes gave me a major headache, but I kept watching, hoping the movie would get, I don't know, normal, I guess. It didn't. Supposedly, this film has great cinematography...again, it just gave me a headache. By the time the movie was done, I still knew nothing about the characters, and I felt like I was having an anxiety attack!

Rating:
Summary: avant garde masterpiece
Review: This film is the most radical, experimental and surreal film ever made to this day. Nothing done by any other filmmakers before or since compares to its violation of ordinary modes of cinema, and yet, it establishes its own reality which is perfectly understandable, once one is mesmerized by its beauty.

It is easy to do so, as the film is shot with an immaculately clean and smooth black and white style in an enormous and picturesque resort, with the most elegant and beautiful french actors of the day.

However, the film is far more than picturesque. The writer, Robbe-Grillet, is one of the greatest innovators of 20th century literature and cinema. He stated in the introduction to the published version of the script that his desire was not to confuse the viewer, but to present something closer to what one actually experiences in everyday life than what is given in ordinary storytelling - a combination of present experience, past memories, and future anticipations, all of which are equally important because in the mind, they are so. One does not live life like a storybook - one lives it within the universe of human consciousness, which is exceedingly difficult and complex to record. This is one of the few films to attempt just that.

This DVD is an excellent quality transfer, and the subtitles can be turned off if you want to see the entire screen-image.

Rating:
Summary: Should be four stars, but the DVD release is substandard!
Review: Everything else to say about this film has already been said here except this: don't get the DVD - get the VHS version released by Connoisseur. On the DVD, the subtitles cover half the screen, while the black bars remain placidly unused for any purpose! Since there's alot of talking, the yellow words are constantly flashing across the picture instead of below it. If you speak fluent French, the DVD is fine, just turn off the subtitles. If you speak doofus French, the subtitles are infuriating in this edition. A total screw-up by Fox-Lorber!